Estuaries begin to stirKevin Gleed | First Published: October 2005

With the wattle trees in full bloom, it’s definitely Spring and there’s a long-time local saying that when the wattle is blooming, the bream are moving.

So for the estuary, things will definitely start to pick up this month.

The warming water should be the key for a few estuary fish to pick up activity and shake off the lethargy of Winter.

A few flathead are still being caught and I have found a couple of tricks that work well at this time of year.

I like to use small lures and work them very slowly to arouse the curiosity of a sluggish fish. And often I will also try a big lure moved at a steady pace with a jerky retrieve to incite the fish to get off the bottom and have a go.

Fishing the beaches in the Eden area has generally been a bit slow for only patchy salmon and tailor, with the big schools of salmon not really showing up.

The inshore fishing has been excellent with snapper still reliable targets along with morwong, leatherjackets and flathead. Cuttlefish have still been floating around so they are an obvious reliable bait for the inshore angler, along with squid. However, a pilchard bait floated down a berley trail of chopped pilchards has also been successful for the snapper.

Amazingly, there has still been the odd kingfish caught around Mowarry Point and it won’t be long until the kings again will be commonplace captures.

Out wide on the continental shelf there have still been captures of yellowfin tuna so fingers crossed for another good season.

Fishing at Wonboyn has been improving, with a well-scoured entrance ensuring good tidal movement and firing up the local action. The oyster farmers are a lot happier than in the past, now that these shellfish have benefited from some tidal flow.

With the odd flathead already being caught, things will only improve as it warms up and this month they should really come on the chew. At the time of writing most of the fish were being taken in the afternoon on the warmer days as the water heated up enough to make the fish more active.

The bream have been a bit slow over Winter but things should be well and truly fired up as fish move up the river now.

A few reports of estuary perch are coming in from anglers prepared to put in the time, with some of these fish going close to 1.5kg.

Salmon are still being caught on the beaches around Wonboyn but not in the numbers that are normal in late Winter/early Spring. Mixed with the salmon that have been caught are a few nice tailor.